


Five Videos Jack Received From Ianto, and One He Didn't

by Galadriel1010



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Episode: s01e04 Cyberwoman, Episode: s02e12 Fragments, Episode: s03 - Children of Earth Arc, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-20
Updated: 2010-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-09 01:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/81586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel1010/pseuds/Galadriel1010
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Through the years, even before he met him, Jack has received five videos from Ianto, but there's one he'll never get.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Videos Jack Received From Ianto, and One He Didn't

"Jones, Ianto Jones," Jack muttered to himself. "You know what a Weevil is... is that why your name's familiar, are you one of them?" He threw himself into his chair and logged on to the system, then went straight to the files on the survivors of Canary Wharf. There was only one name under J – Jones, I. One of only twenty seven survivors, and he was coming back for more. Jack dug deeper, intrigued, and found his employee record at Torchwood One. As soon as he opened it, a video started to play automatically.

"Captain Harkness," the boy, looking younger than he had last night – though surviving the Battle of Canary Wharf would do that to a person, looked directly into the camera. "I don't know what I've done to catch your attention, but I'd like to warn you in advance that I have no intentions of returning to Cardiff. If you're watching this message and I'm still alive, feel free to drop me a message if you're still interested and I'll consider it. If I'm dead though, I'd like to ask a favour. I know you don't owe me anything, but neither does anyone else. Please make sure my sister never knows," he swallowed and nodded at the camera, then it shut off.

Jack sat back in his chair and rested his chin in his hand with his elbow on the chair arm. "So, Ianto Jones, who was so determined not to come back to Cardiff that you left me a message just in case I found you; why have you come back?"

* * *

Jack laid the paper trail for Tanizaki and Annie himself, then wrote up the reports for UNIT and Torchwood's archives. He didn't spare the details, and it was for that reason that he set them aside to send off later – Ianto didn't deserve some of the accusations he'd levelled against him, and Jack would regret it if he'd left them against Ianto's record forever.

The last thing to do before he went around to Ianto's and finished the clean-up was to remove Ianto as an active member of Torchwood. Even with the anger and the knowledge that he had to do it, it was still hard to click the button and remove him from Torchwood. He did it and sat back, scrubbing at his face with open palms, so Ianto's voice surprised him.

"Jack... Captain," he looked older than the last video; tired and sad. Jack felt the loss for the first time – they'd had such a promising start to their relationship, but there was no way out. "If you're reading this message because I died in active duty, I want you to know that it wasn't your fault. You'll blame yourself, because that's who you are, but I hope that someone comes along who can tell you it wasn't your fault and make you believe it. Don't go to Gwen for that, she'll probably be blaming you for it already, because that's who she is. She's wrong, please stop trying to live up to her expectations, Jack. She has no idea who you are or what you have to do for Torchwood, and even less idea of what it costs you. She'll never understand, because she doesn't want to. I know I don't understand you, but at least I can see where Jack stops and the Captain starts. Could, I suppose."

He swallowed and looked away from the camera. "The other thing you need to know is... the second time we met, I told you that Lisa died. She didn't. She's partly converted, but I'm sure she can be healed, I really am. I've nearly told you so many times, but..." he shook his head. "I hope you've found this in time. I can't bear the thought of her dying down there just because I couldn't look after her. She's in sub-basement six, and I've left the information on the doses of medications she needs down there with her. If... if I'm wrong and she can't be healed, then please don't let her die alone. I'm sorry to ask this of you, but please help her to go without pain. Don't let her starve to death in the darkness," he closed his eyes and looked directly into the camera then. "If it's the alternative, and you're watching this because you found out about her, then I don't blame you. You did what you had to do – you always do what you have to, no matter the cost. All I ask... there I go again..." he sighed. "Please try to remember me as the friend I was, not the traitor I died as. And, I guess this is goodbye. Thank you, Jack. It was great knowing you."

Jack wiped his eyes dry and reactivated Ianto's user account and put him on suspended activity. Mainframe grumbled a little at his quick change of heart, but he ignored her and deleted the report before shutting the terminal down and grabbing his coat. He'd redo the reports and finish off here in the morning – the dead could wait, but the living needed his help.

* * *

He let himself into the empty Hub and looked around, assessing the changes. The most important thing was that there were still four desks with the familiar detritus of hectic work lives – Gwen's desk had a photo of her and Rhys, Tosh's glasses were on top of a notebook on hers, Owen had left a forest of coffee mugs in the corner waiting for Ianto to collect them, and Ianto's desk had a stack of reports with the fountain pen that Jack had bought him lying on top. He thought that that was probably a good sign.

In his office, it looked like Ianto had tidied. It looked like no one had used it whilst he was gone, but everything had been looked after and there was a post-it note in the middle of the blotter in Ianto's neat scrawl telling anyone to please leave any reports on the desk for him to file later. Jack smirked and settled behind the desk, then logged himself onto the computer to find his team. When he wasn't surprised by the video, he realised he'd been expecting it.

"You're back then," Ianto smiled at him. He was sitting on the bed back at his flat, hair messy from sleep and with one of his 'funny' T shirts on, Jack couldn't tell which. He smiled sadly as Ianto continued, "I missed you. No, that's wrong, I miss you. And if you're watching this, it means that I haven't been able to get this off the system before you got to your computer, which probably means that I'm dead – if I'm not, then I will be once I realise you've seen this. I know you'll come back, but I don't know that I'll still be here. Day off today because I got injured, and it brought it home to me, so there's a few things you need to know that I didn't get to tell you.

"First off, I love you. I've loved you for a while, and I wish I'd told you before you left. I think you knew, but it would have been nice to know that you knew I loved you. I hope you remember me fondly, at least, although I know I couldn't live up to what he can offer you; never expected to. One day, you'll feel your duty call you home, and I'm really sorry that I'm not there to welcome you back. Don't think I'm being fatalistic; I have plenty of alternative versions of your return that I hope will come true – this is just an 'in case'."

He swallowed and looked up to the ceiling, leaning back enough for Jack to see that it was his 'The Angels Have The Phone Box' T-shirt, an inside joke from Torchwood One. He carried on speaking to the ceiling. "It wasn't your fault, Jack. If you get back and find that I'm gone, don't blame yourself. I tried to wait for you, but I just wasn't strong enough in the end. Don't do something drastic and change time to get me back – not that I think you would, but your mind is a strange place, and you take blame so hard. It wasn't your fault, and there's nothing you can do to change it.

"The next thing's comparatively boring. The others will probably have told you this, but I've been filing all the reports you need to read in the new filing cabinet in your office. They'll be in chronological order with all the reports on each incident collected together up until I died – after that it may be a bit more haphazard. I've left notes on the status of the archives and anything I think you need to know at the front of the top drawer, so read all that first."

He looked down to the camera again and reached to turn it off, but he stopped before he got there and dropped his hand. "I really do love you, Jack. And I miss you, and I wish more than anything that I'd seen you again. I can't wait to be able to delete this off the system and put one of my other fantasy homecomings into action, but if I can't..." he smiled dryly. "Goodbye Jack, be happy."

The video died again and Jack wiped his eyes dry with one hand whilst he rescued the file and saved it to his independent hard-drive with the other. He swallowed hard and nearly ran out of his office to Ianto's station, searching through his things. A signed report, dated today, a half drunk mug of coffee, a photo of the team minus him, taken recently. Ianto was still alive, he'd got back in time – Ianto would be mortified when he found out that Jack had seen it. He chuckled and went back to the computer to track his team down again, then set off to find out more about these fantasies of Ianto's.

* * *

Jack hung up slowly and started to get really worried now. It wasn't like Ianto to not answer his phone once, but three times was beyond unheard of. When the video popped up on his screen, he merely raised an eyebrow at it. "Jack," Ianto looked calm, but he was wearing a very seventies style suit, his hair had grown and he looked like he hadn't been sleeping. "I'm at Torchwood London. The disappearances at Wester Drumlins were caused by these statues, they look like stone angels and if they touch you, they send you back in time. I'm in nineteen seventy six. If you can't get me back from here, I'll be turning up on your doorstep soon. I miss you already, I just... Well, I'll be older than you look by the time I get back, so I don't expect to pick up where we were last time I saw you. I just need to...I don't know, I need to get back to you, Jack. I love you, and I'll see you on," he checked his watch. "July sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, any time after three o'clock in the afternoon. Or I'll see you in two thousand and eight, on the fifth of March at six o'clock in the restaurant at the St David's Hotel – I'll make us a reservation."

He checked the stamp on the video first – uploaded to the server by Jones, I, in May two thousand and five, just after he joined. Pleased with the irony, he called the St David's and checked their reservation, "You don't have a reservation for Jones? Or Harkness? Not even Torchwood? Oh, well in that case I'd like to book a table under the name Harkness-Jones and a room for the night. Yeah, a double please. Yeah, that's great, thanks."

Then he called Martha, who called the Doctor, who brought Ianto home.

* * *

Jack took his laptop to bed, knowing that he wouldn't get any sleep anyway. There was a new email in his inbox from Ianto, so he opened that first. It was a video.

"You sent me to Glasgow," Ianto told him in a flat tone. "You sent me to Glasgow to work with bloody Archie and their bloody system in the bloody cold. It's cold, the bed is hard and cold, I'm cold and I am sexually frustrated, because all I could think about all day was that if you ever got me that annoyed, it would be with the direct aim of making me bend you over your desk so that I could show you just how annoyed I was with you. Got that?" Jack nodded pointlessly at the computer. "Well, I'm going to show you just how frustrated I am, and you are going to sit back and watch me. Don't touch yourself, don't move. Just watch."

He watched. Oh Gods he watched. Then he called Ianto, who snapped down the phone, "What?"

Jack's eyes widened and he steadied his breathing. "I promise, I'll never send you to Glasgow again. I miss you too much."

Ianto sighed and his voice softened. "Did you miss me before the video?"

"I've missed you all day," he answered honestly.

"Good," Ianto's voice smiled. "I'll be home as soon as I can, to show you how annoyed I am with you."

"I look forwards to it," Jack smirked. "I love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

And one he never got

Ianto Jones sat up in his hospital bed with his laptop on a pillow on his knees. Jack had gone to bed for a while, the first time he'd left the hospital since he'd carried Ianto out of Thames House himself and straight into the waiting ambulance. Roughly half of those in the building were making a slow recovery, whilst others never would. Ianto had had constant exposure to the Rift and a cocktail of Torchwood strength immunisations behind him – and, most importantly, the rift flare caused by the explosion in the Hub which killed Jack at the same time as destroying the Rift Manipulator and tied his life to Jack's. He watched the video he'd left for Jack over again.

"Jack, this is the final video I'm going to leave for you, I hope. I'm going to say everything I think I need to say to you in the event of my death, and it's this: I love you. That was simple. Don't miss me too much."

He sniggered and deleted it – he didn't need it any more. Besides, Jack already knew.


End file.
